Sunday, January 03, 2021

Preface To Jean's Show: Don't Know Nobody Named Jean

It's true.  I don't know anyone named Jean.  Certainly the only "Jean" that shows up in my Facebook friend search - & can we just acknowledge how weird it is that you can "search" your "friends"? - is someone I haven't spoken to in well over a decade & I'm certain she no longer looks at Facebook.  She might even have forgotten her password.  Anyway, I'm not sure it's her real name - she's using Jean as her last name but perhaps it's actually her real middle name.  The point is, I'm not sure if I reached out to her I'd actually get a response.

There was a time when there were two sort-of Jeans in my life.  My sister Pat's husband - he's a widower now - his mother was named Jeanette, but she's not been with us for a while.  & he now longer speaks to me.  So I couldn't ask him to talk about his mother, who seemed to be a very nice person.  I can see her face even now.  She had a lovely smile.

& the ex-wife of one of my brothers has a sister named Jeannie.  I thought about asking her - we're friends on Facebook - to inquire if her sister might like to talk on the show, but I somehow thought she'd either say no, or her sister would say no, or it would just be too weird for either of them.  I haven't spoken to that Jeannie since - this is absolutely true - the fall of 1988, when she gave me a ride to Dallas from Austin for I think Thanksgiving.  She was living on the Gulf Coast at the time & was swinging through Austin for some reason.  It seemed like a nice drive.  But we didn't speak again.  & I guess my brother & her sister were divorced soon after, so there weren't any family gatherings at which to see her.

& that's it!  So why do a radio show about anyone named Jean?  I suppose I can answer that tomorrow, even though you know what the answer is & shouldn't even ask that question anymore.

Post Script: I will talk to three people with some form of the name Jean on the show, though.

No comments: